Testimonials

Ensuring a Legacy Through Simplified Giving

Inspiration often strikes in unexpected and unprecedented ways. When Paula Partipilo, a DuPage County resident, discovered a hand-written note belonging to her uncle, she was moved. It read: “When you are surrounded by that state of grace where nothing else matters except the feeling you have within yourself, that is your intersection with destiny.”

Partipilo’s uncle, Daniel Ruscitti, had strong charitable ambitions and a heart for giving back to those most in need. The causes for which he felt the greatest passions related to helping adults afflicted with HIV/AIDS, and supporting the educational needs of children living in the inner-city.

When her uncle passed away in April 2000, Partipilo experienced her personal intersection with destiny and established the Daniel R. Ruscitti Charitable Foundation, a private foundation, to channel and preserve her uncle’s philanthropic work. She was committed to honoring her uncle’s legacy and allowing his philanthropic spirit to thrive by supporting the causes to which he felt most connected during his lifetime. Through the private foundation, Partipilo provided financial support to several organizations that aligned with her uncle’s charitable goals.

While a private foundation can support many diverse causes, there are often burdensome administrative challenges that accompany that method of grantmaking. For many individuals, creating and maintaining a private foundation can be a cumbersome and costly undertaking. In 2011, Partipilo decided she needed assistance and was referred to the DuPage Foundation by Trust Company of Illinois. She collaborated with Barb Szczepaniak, the Foundation’s vice president for programs, to help navigate the complexities associated with grant administration. Partipilo was impressed by how smoothly the DuPage Foundation handled the logistics and due diligence related to her needs.

Following her positive experience, Partipilo explored the cost savings and other advantages of converting her private foundation into a donor-advised fund at the DuPage Foundation. Because the DuPage Foundation is a publicly-supported 501(c)(3) organization, there are less restrictions in comparison to private foundations. She completed the transfer in 2016 allowing her to preserve the identity of her uncle’s foundation while freeing her to focus 100% on its mission and grant priorities.

“I look forward to continuing my uncle’s legacy of philanthropic good-doing,” said Partipilo. “The DuPage Foundation provides the greatest opportunity to maintain his charitable wishes at an affordable cost while relieving the administrative burden for me.”Recently, Partipilo and Szczepaniak have worked together to distribute grants to Chicago House and Social Service Agency which serves individuals and families who are disenfranchised by HIV/AIDS, LGBTQ marginalization, poverty, homelessness, and/or gender nonconformity. The agency provides housing, employment services, medical linkage and retention services, HIV prevention services, legal services, and other supportive programs.

Who We Are

Interested in learning more about how we can help you accomplish your charitable goals? Please contact Michael R. Sitrick, JD, Foundation vice president for advancement, at mike@dupagefoundation.org
or 630.598.5285.

Privacy Policy

What Information Do We Collect?
When you visit our website you may provide us with two types of information: personal information you knowingly choose to disclose that is collected on an individual basis and website use information collected on an aggregate basis as you and others browse our website.

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We may request that you voluntarily supply us with personal information, including your email address, postal address, home or work telephone number and other personal information for such purposes as correspondence, placing an order, requesting an estimate, or participating in online surveys.
If you choose to correspond with us through email, we may retain the content of your email messages together with your email address and our responses. We provide the same protections for these electronic communications that we employ in the maintenance of information received by mail and telephone.

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Notice of New Services and Changes
Occasionally, we may use the information we collect to notify you about important changes to our website, new services and special offers we think you will find valuable. As a user of our website, you will be given the opportunity to notify us of your desire not to receive these offers by clicking on a response box when you receive such an offer or by sending us an email request.

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When you send confidential personal information to us on our website, a secure server software which we have licensed encrypts all information you input before it is sent to us. The information is scrambled en route and decoded once it reaches our website.
Other email that you may send to us may not be secure unless we advise you that security measures will be in place prior to your transmitting the information. For that reason, we ask that you do not send confidential information such as Social Security, credit card, or account numbers to us through an unsecured email.

How Do We Protect Your Information?
Information Security -- We utilize encryption/security software to safeguard the confidentiality of personal information we collect from unauthorized access or disclosure and accidental loss, alteration or destruction.
Evaluation of Information Protection Practices -- Periodically, our operations and business practices are reviewed for compliance with organization policies and procedures governing the security, confidentiality and quality of our information.
Employee Access, Training and Expectations -- Our organization values, ethical standards, policies and practices are committed to the protection of user information. In general, our business practices limit employee access to confidential information, and limit the use and disclosure of such information to authorized persons, processes and transactions.

How Can You Access and Correct Your Information?
You may request access to all your personally identifiable information that we collect online and maintain in our database by emailing us using the contact form provided to you within the site structure of our website.

Do We Disclose Information to Outside Parties?
We may provide aggregate information about our customers, sales, website traffic patterns and related website information to our affiliates or reputable third parties, but this information will not include personally identifying data, except as otherwise provided in this privacy policy.

What About Legally Compelled Disclosure of Information?
We may disclose information when legally compelled to do so, in other words, when we, in good faith, believe that the law requires it or for the protection of our legal rights.

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Terms & Conditions

Donation Refund Policy

We are grateful for your donation and support of our organization. If you have made an error in making your donation or change your mind about contributing to our organization please contact us. Refunds are returned using the original method of payment. If you made your donation by credit card, your refund will be credited to that same credit card.

Automated Recurring Donation Cancellation

Ongoing support is important to enabling projects to continue their work, so we encourage donors to continue to contribute to projects over time. But if you must cancel your recurring donation, please notify us.